Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s Gluten-Free Copyright Infringement
Posted by: Daniela Guernica
Filed in:
celebs
9:20AM, Wednesday June 24th 2009
Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s new book The G-Free Diet: A Gluten-Free Survival Guide is supposed to help people with Celiac disease, like herself, eat well. Too bad she may have ripped the idea from someone else. Massachusetts-based author Susan Hasset is suing the “View” co-host for copyright infringement. Apparently Hasset, who can’t digest wheat either, sent Hasselbeck a copy of her book Living With Celiac Disease last April, along with a cooking video, a note, a business card, and a nice bundle of info. So is it just a coincidence that Hasselbeck’s book hit the shelves last month? [Fox News]
In a letter sent to Hasselbeck and ABC, Hasset’s lawyer lays out a laundry list of similarities between the books, from chapter titles to actual quotes. Did he also point out that the two women also share the first syllable of their last name?
Meanwhile, Hasselbeck says that she didn’t steal the idea and her publisher, Hachette Book Group, released a statement saying that neither they nor Hasselbeck have yet to be “served with Hasset’s lawsuit” filed Monday in Boston. So we’ll have to sit back, eat some toast, and see how this how this gluten-free battle pans out.
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Joey Daytona
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 09:27 am: [report]
That Right-wing tart should re-read Ayn Rand and realize her “me to” book wasn’t just a blatant rip-off but it violates Rand’s dictum not to be a ‘parasitic second hander’.
tabby
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 09:33 am: [report]
While I really dislike Hasselbeck and often find myself yelling at her on my tv, based on the evidence I have seen so far, she is in the clear. The stuff that was allegedly ripped from Hasset’s book are the kind of general knowledge/common sense concepts that everyone has easy access to and can say without needing to cite their sources. If it was one of my student’s, I would tell them not to worry about it because they didn’t plagiarize. However, I have not seen all of the evidence and so it may be possible that she plagiarized from other sections of Hasset’s book that I have not seen. And I also hope that Elizabeth did research for her book and cited those sources.
-So sayeth the college librarian
vanya
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 09:42 am: [report]
Sounds very similar to when Jessica Sklar-Seinfeld was sued over “Deceptively Delicious” by Missy Chase Lapine who wrote “The Sneaky Chef”
Kate Torgovnick
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 09:55 am: [report]
I’s so easy for two people to have the same idea at the same time, that I’m always nervous when people talk about plaigarism over a concept. But that said, as a writer, if I were working on a gluten-free cookbook and someone sent me a similar book, I would return the package with a note explaining that I was working on a similar project, and wouldn’t feel comfortable looking at theirs.
Also, Elisabeth totally won in the cover department.
Anna Banana
wrote on June 24 2009 @ 11:15 am: [report]
So there can’t be two books about celiac disease?? I say the more the better. Lots of people suffer from this, and would love to have many resources from which to choose.
koppy katty
wrote on June 29 2009 @ 12:59 am: [report]
Wait just a dern minute. This here was definitely my idea first. My best bud is gluten intollerant, and I told her to write a book waaay back in November!! In fact, that’s exactly when she learned about Elizabeth’s problem. I had been trying to get her to watch the View for years, and now she watches all the time.
We both think a lawsuit is totally out of order. But, let me put a big bug in yer ear… This could just be one big fat publicity stunt. Afterall, we are painfully aware that a Republican would do just about anything to make a buck… And Liz has some pretttty slimey teachers to choose from!
Now where IS that lawyer’s phone number?——————->
retro chic
wrote on June 29 2009 @ 01:51 am: [report]
@koppy katty, yay, another cynic. Didn’t want to say it, but glad *you* did. I smell an elephant-sized rat, too. “Pretty” Repub females in the public eye are on high-alert to rehabilitate the party any way they can. You know, since the ol’ political candidates/policies/scandals aren’t working so well these days.
mkldus3
wrote on June 29 2009 @ 04:06 am: [report]
Interesting half of you choose to make this a political subject. I give her great courage for sitting up there surrounded by socialists and taking a pounding for having a different set of beliefs. If any of you spent half the time in Eastern Europe and Russia as I have, rest assured you would NEVER again in your life slam a Republican.
BlueVibe
wrote on August 6 2009 @ 08:08 am: [report]
I don’t think having a book with the same *idea* is that suspicious, but if there are, in fact, matching chapter titles and quotations (an allegation that ought to be obvious if somebody just checks), then that’s not cool.
And, personally, that something is “common knowledge” doesn’t mean it doesn’t need to be footnoted. Many things that are “common knowledge” are, in fact, myths and wives’ tales—I’d want to see references to reliable sources on anything that the author claims is factual.